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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's the Sunday Drive to church for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. That's August 10th, year of our Lord 2025. This is the jet lag version of the Sunday Drive to Church podcast. Glad to be back in Texas. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning for the installation of our new vicar, Vicar Dawson. That'll be great. At the early service. We'll recognize him and his family in the late service. Dylan will keep.
[00:00:27] Dylan will keep his Sunday school going on Ruth. That was a great start last week. It's really fantastic.
[00:00:36] Still trying to figure this out. Pastor Davis told me that he told you all last week that this week was going to be Luke 12, where Jesus says, don't worry about your life, what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear. The Gentiles worry about that. But you have a father in heaven who cares about you.
[00:00:55] Which is a beautiful text. But there's also this Genesis 15 and Hebrews 11, which I was looking at all day today. We'll see maybe a little mix of all of them, but let's get into it here with the prayer of the day. We'll start here.
[00:01:09] Let us pray. Almighty and merciful God, it is by your grace that we live as your people who offer acceptable service.
[00:01:17] Grant that we may walk by faith and not by sight in the way that leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[00:01:31] Amen. I mentioned the Old Testament. I mentioned all the readings except for the Psalms. Psalm 33, which is also a beautiful psalm. It looks like we're doing the second half of the Psalm. I think it's the second half. It's verses.
[00:01:45] Where did it go? Here. Verses 12 to 22.
[00:01:54] Whenever you see 22 verses in a psalm, you think, ah, I wonder if it's an acrostic. Remember that. There's. There's 22 letters.
[00:02:03] I'm flipping over in my Hebrew Bible to check it out here. There's 22 letters in Hebrew.
[00:02:10] Uh huh, uh huh. Nope. Psalm 34 has 22 verses and it is an acrostic. But Psalm 33 with 22 verses is not.
[00:02:25] That's interesting.
[00:02:28] We're in the last half of Psalm 33, which is so good. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
[00:02:39] The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of men where he sits enthroned. He looks out on the inhabitants of the earth. This is the picture of God sitting on his throne, watching everything that's happening underneath him and, and being in charge. This is one of these basic things that it means to be a Christian and to read the Bible and believe what's in there is that the Lord is king, he sits on the throne, which means that all the other kings are just sub kings, minor kings. And there's always a king above the king, which is so important. I mean, this is one of the reasons why atheistic religion, or, sorry, atheistic politics is so deadly.
[00:03:22] Because if you have an atheistic worldview that there is no God, then there is no one above the king.
[00:03:29] Or if you have this kind of ancient pagan idea that the king is a God, there is no one above the king.
[00:03:35] But we are Christians, which means there is always someone above the king. It goes on. Verse 16. The king is not saved by his great army.
[00:03:43] A warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
[00:03:47] The war horse is a false hope for salvation. By its great might it cannot rescue. Behold the look at this. The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.
[00:04:00] So kings can't deliver by strength, but God can.
[00:04:04] And then at the end, our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Maybe it should be like this. He is our help and our shield.
[00:04:15] Other people might have other helps and other shields. Those all fail, but our help and our shield. It's the Lord.
[00:04:22] Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.
[00:04:26] And then the prayer at the end, let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
[00:04:37] What a psalm. Beautiful. Then we're on to Genesis 15. This is one of the most important passages in the scriptures, I'd say if you're ranking important passages in, in the Old Testament, you can't do better than Genesis 3, 15 and 16, the Proto Evangelion, for understanding the Old Testament. But this Genesis 15 has got to be in the top five.
[00:05:04] It's when the Lord comes to Abram in a vision and he says, fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.
[00:05:14] That probably can be better translated. I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.
[00:05:21] So God himself is the reward that's coming to Abraham. But then Abraham says, hold on a minute.
[00:05:28] Oh Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.
[00:05:35] And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring. A member of my household will be my heir. This is the servant Eleazar.
[00:05:45] And the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir.
[00:05:49] Your very own son shall be your heir.
[00:05:52] And he, the Lord brought Abram outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them.
[00:05:59] And he said, so shall your offspring be. And here's the key verse, verse six.
[00:06:06] And he, Abram, believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
[00:06:16] This is the whole doctrine of the Scriptures. It's righteousness not by works, but righteousness by faith.
[00:06:25] And there's a lot of different ways to be righteous. Mostly we can be righteous by achieving righteousness, or we can be righteous by being declared righteousness.
[00:06:35] And here is the saving righteousness of Abraham and of all Christians.
[00:06:41] We believe the Lord and the Lord counts that faith as righteousness.
[00:06:50] It's so important.
[00:06:53] That's what all of Hebrews 11 is about, and that's what we're going to get in the epistle lesson.
[00:06:58] Hebrews 11 is sometimes called the hall of faith, like the hall of fame, but the hall of faith, because it talks about all the Old Testament saints who had faith in the Lord's promises. And it starts out with this beautiful definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old receive their commendation. By faith we understand the universe was created by the word of God so that what was seen was not made out of things that are visible.
[00:07:28] That's the creatio ex nihilo, the creation. Out of nothing there confessed Hebrews 11. And then it's going to start this list. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. That's verse four. Verse.
[00:07:42] Sorry, I have a tiny little printout here. Verse 5. By Faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
[00:07:52] Without faith. Listen to this. Verse 6. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[00:08:06] Noah by faith. Noah, being warned by God concerning events, yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed the ark for the saving of his household by faith. Verse 8. Abraham. Here we get to. Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
[00:08:27] By faith he went to live in a land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the Same promise he was looking to the city that had foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
[00:08:40] By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age.
[00:08:48] So from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of the heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
[00:09:00] So that Isaac and the whole children of promise are also ex nihilo from nothing, from the dead flesh of Abraham and Sarah comes forth as many children as the stars and the grains of sand.
[00:09:15] And there's a little summary starting here in verse 13.
[00:09:19] Paul or whoever wrote Hebrews will go on to list more and more people by faith. But listen to what he says here in this little intermission. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one.
[00:09:54] Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. He's prepared them a city.
[00:09:59] So we're looking for that city, God's city, God's home, God's kingdom, God's country, the new heaven and the new earth which is on the way. And Abraham had an eye to that. He was looking forward, not to what the Lord had given him. He was trusting the promise.
[00:10:20] Be interesting to see how many grandchildren Abraham had when he died.
[00:10:26] We can figure that out with the timeline. I wonder.
[00:10:32] My big timeline book is at at church. I have to look at that tomorrow. But you know Abraham, he died not having. Certainly he did not have as many children as the sand on the seashore.
[00:10:46] He had to walk by faith, not by sight.
[00:10:50] That's also from the collect the Gospel lesson From Luke chapter 12 is the preaching of Jesus. Beautiful preaching.
[00:11:00] This is one of my favorite passages because it was my grandfather's funeral passage. Well, from the preaching in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. This is from the Sermon on the Plain in Luke chapter 12, where Jesus is telling his disciples not to worry.
[00:11:18] Jesus said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you'll put on.
[00:11:26] For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.
[00:11:31] Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap.
[00:11:34] They have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than the birds?
[00:11:43] And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
[00:11:47] If you're not able to do a small thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith.
[00:12:14] And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, or be worried, for the nations of the world, seek after these things. Your Father knows you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
[00:12:28] Fear not. Oh boy, this is a good promise. Verse 32 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
[00:12:40] Sell your possessions, give them to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that don't grow old, With a treasure in the heavens that will not fail. Where no thief approaches and no money moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
[00:12:57] What a beautiful text. I think it was my grand. According to my dad, it was my grandfather's favorite because he was a fighter pilot. He flew P38s in World War II. I probably told you guys this story, and that was a rough job. Not many guys made it back.
[00:13:15] He was in California, and all his guys in his fleet that went over to the Pacific ended up. Well, none of them came back. But he, by a fluke, was stationed over in Africa. And in fact he was apparently on duty when Pearl harbor hit and an admiral came to the base and said, take me to Washington D.C. so they thought he had deserted, but he was over in D.C. with his plane. So they sent him over to Africa and a bunch of the guys there died. And he was shot down. Well, he was shot one time one of his engines went out and he almost crash landed. But he did crash land on the base and he thought I should have died.
[00:13:55] And I didn't. And so every day was a gift.
[00:13:59] And I think about this a lot.
[00:14:02] Every day was a gift.
[00:14:05] And he knew it because people all around him were dying. And he was saved. Barely was saved.
[00:14:17] And so he knew that this day, this breath, this heartbeat, this moment, this conversation, this hymn, this drive, this sunrise or sunset, this meal, everything was a gift from God.
[00:14:35] Now it's just as true. That is just as true. Before you almost Die in war as it is after you almost die in war, it's just almost dying in war helps you realize it. But it's probably something to do with our baptism as well, that when we're baptized, we're buried with Christ Jesus.
[00:14:53] So that now every day is a gift, an absolute gift.
[00:14:58] And this way of being thankful and hopeful pushes out anxiety. Ah, I'll have to preach on this, all right. Pastor Davis has talked me into it, and thinking about it has got me. So we'll say a lot more, because Jesus tells us here not to worry. But then we. We go and we try not to worry. And then we worry that we're worrying too much, or we're worrying that we're not being successful and not worrying. Well, we'll talk about what Jesus means when he says, look, don't be anxious about your life, what you're going to eat, or your body, what you'll put on, because you have a father in heaven who takes care of us.
[00:15:35] That's a beautiful promise. The hymn of the day, my favorite. Oh, Little flock, Fear not the foe. It's hymn 666. On purpose.
[00:15:44] I mean, I guess they could have skipped a number, but they had that many hymns, so they put it in there and they said, hey, there's nothing superstitious about this.
[00:15:53] 666 is probably.
[00:15:55] Well, you know, it's a secret number that's pointing to something interesting. I've been recently convinced that it's the last Roman emperor when he falls, but. So 666. Look, you don't need to be afraid of the devil, and that's what this hymn is. I always think this hymn is by Luther, but it's not. It's by Jacob Fabricius Jakob, who was also a Lutheran hymn writer early. Early on.
[00:16:24] But it has that. It has that Lutheran sound. O little flock, fear not the foe who madly seeks your overthrow.
[00:16:34] I love it. Dread not his raging power.
[00:16:37] I think this is on my funeral list. Though your courage sometimes faints, his seeming triumph over God's saints lasts but a little hour. Be a gouture.
[00:16:47] Your cause belongs to him who can avenge all wrongs.
[00:16:51] Leave it to him. Our Lord, though hidden yet from mortal eyes, His Gideon shall for you arise, uphold you and his word as true as God's own word is true. Not earth nor hell's satanic crew. Against us shall prevail. There might a joke, a mere facade.
[00:17:10] God's with us, we with God.
[00:17:13] Our victory cannot fail.
[00:17:17] And then, like the psalm, the last stanza is a prayer Amen. Lord Jesus, grant our prayer. Great captain, now thine arm make bare fight for us once again.
[00:17:27] So shall thy saints and martyrs raise a mighty chorus to thy praise forevermore.
[00:17:35] Amen.
[00:17:37] Amen.
[00:17:39] This last little verse here, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I think as we mourn the death of those that we love and see this happening, this verse also comes back to life for us.
[00:17:53] Because we are always, all through our life, storing up treasures in heaven, those loved ones that are there waiting for us.
[00:18:03] And we will. Our heart is longing to be with Jesus and with them.
[00:18:08] That's really wonderful.
[00:18:11] This world is not our final place. We have a heavenly home. It's on the way.
[00:18:19] God be praised.
[00:18:21] All right, that'll have to do it for the Sunday drive to church today. Oh, look, it's a little short. 18 minutes. I'll have to make up for it next week. Or maybe this is making up for previous weeks, but we'll see in a few minutes.
[00:18:35] Make sure to greet Vicar Dawson this morning, say hi and introduce yourself to him. I'll be giving him a quiz on everybody's name this week, so you want to introduce yourself to him and welcome him and his family. It's wonderful to have him with us. God we praise for that. And we'll see you soon. God's peace be with you.