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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, St. Paul Lutheran Church. I'll bet you're driving to church right now.
[00:00:04] Have I got a podcast for you. It's a ninth Sunday after Trinity, August 2, 2026.
[00:00:10] I'm Pastor Wolfmuller. Here we go to get you ready for all the stuff.
[00:00:14] It might be as tight as I can today. We got a. Just short. Little short on time. Anyway, let's get to it. Colic for the day. Let us pray.
[00:00:23] Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants that they may obtain their petitions. Make them ask such things as shall please you through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[00:00:41] Amen.
[00:00:42] That is a beautiful prayer, which is a prayer for good prayers.
[00:00:47] Lord, we want you to answer our prayers, so make sure to give us good prayers to pray. You know, we have that, and we talked about that with the Lord's Prayer. How the Lord, and not only in the Lord's Prayer, teaches us what we need. He gives us the words to pray so we don't have to pray. Thy kingdom come, if it be your will, because we know it's his will already.
[00:01:07] Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. All right, there's a lot of King David coming at us today.
[00:01:12] First from the psalm, the answer Psalm is Psalm 51, which is the prayer that David prays after his repentance, after his year of hard hearted resistance, after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah and plotting with Joab. What a dark episode in the life of King David. And you know, sometimes we think that the.
[00:01:41] What, the Lord crushed his heart right away, but it took a year.
[00:01:48] There was a year of unrepentance. And so Nathan the prophet has to go to him very carefully with this parable. There was a man who had hundreds of sheep, and next to him lived a man with one sheep.
[00:02:01] And a visitor came to this rich man and instead of getting a sheep from his own flock, he got the. He stole the one sheep from his neighbor and killed it. And David says, bring me the guy. I'm going to punish him.
[00:02:13] And Nathan says, you are the man.
[00:02:17] Oh.
[00:02:18] And the Holy Spirit used that preaching to absolutely demolish. King David. Just crushed his heart.
[00:02:26] But he mixed his contrition with faith, his sorrow with trust in the Lord's promise. Remember, that's the two parts of repentance, contrition and faith. And so then he, in repentance prays Psalm 51, and that's our opening psalm. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is always before you.
[00:03:00] What a prayer of repentance. There's seven of these psalms that are identified as the seven Penitental Psalm, but this is the.
[00:03:08] This is the chief of them all. It ends with this threefold reference to the Holy Spirit, but it's a little bit hidden. Verses 10, 11, 12.
[00:03:22] In 11 we see the Holy Spirit. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
[00:03:29] But look at verse 10. Well, don't look, keep driving. But listen to verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
[00:03:39] And then verse 12. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous or free spirit.
[00:03:47] So it's the holy, generous, steadfast Spirit.
[00:03:53] All three should be capitalized. All three should be understood as the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:59] And we remember that these adjectives that become titles of the Holy Spirit also tell us about his works.
[00:04:06] So the Holy Spirit makes us holy. The free Spirit makes us free.
[00:04:10] The steadfast Spirit makes us steadfast.
[00:04:14] So the Spirit's at work within us.
[00:04:18] The Spirit is at work within you. It's an amazing truth. It's something that we have to pray that we can know about, like Paul does in Ephesians 1. Okay, the Old Testament lesson is also King David, 2 Samuel, chapter 22. This is such an interesting section. 2 Samuel 22 is Psalm 18.
[00:04:41] So if you look at 2 Samuel 22 and you look at Psalm 18, there's a few differences, but they're basically the same thing. And then 2 Samuel 23 is the last words of David, even though there's going to be a few things that happen after that, like the census, etc.
[00:04:55] So this Psalm 18, 2 Samuel 22 in some ways is the chief psalm of King David. And it comes right after 2 Samuel 21, which is. You're like, hey, good thing. We listen to the Sunday drive to church to know that chapter 22 comes after 21. But I'll tell you what's in chapter 21.
[00:05:17] It's these killing of the four brothers of Goliath.
[00:05:22] It's wild. So David is down there battling the Philistines, and he almost dies. And one of the brothers of Goliath is about to kill him, and one of his mighty men comes to rescue him.
[00:05:33] And they say, david, look, you can't come to fight the Philistines anymore. You almost died.
[00:05:38] So then it goes on to talk about how three others of his mighty men kill three other giants. What are these giants names? I was just looking. They're crazy. You read the names, you're like, probably a giant.
[00:05:53] Where, where is this here second here it Ish Binob gets killed by Abishai, and that's one of the giants. And Shebekchai.
[00:06:12] No, no, Saf gets. That's the other giant name. Gets. Gets killed by Sebekchai. And then Elhannah kills the brother of Goliath.
[00:06:22] Wild stuff. And then we have this psalm. Now, we haven't even talked about the content because it has one of the biggest mysteries riddles in the whole of the scripture.
[00:06:36] It says, and this is right at the beginning of our Old Testament lesson, with the merciful, you show yourself merciful.
[00:06:44] With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless.
[00:06:47] With the purified, you deal purely.
[00:06:51] But with the crooked, you make yourself seem torturous.
[00:06:58] The old King James says on that last. Because the last one is the tricky one, right? The old King James says, with the froward, thou art froward.
[00:07:08] Which doesn't help too much because I'm not sure what the word froward means, but I think it might mean something like deceptively wicked.
[00:07:17] So for those who are deceiving and committed to wickedness, that's how the Lord acts towards them.
[00:07:25] So with the merciful, God is merciful. With the blameless, he's blameless. With the pure, he's pure. With the evil, he's evil. Whoa, whoa.
[00:07:34] Now, there's something about this that you get God like you expect to get him.
[00:07:42] Remember the parable of the tenants?
[00:07:44] And one, two, go, they invest and they make the money and they get even more. But then with the one talent, he buries it because he says, you're a harsh man.
[00:07:53] And the master says, I am indeed a harsh man.
[00:08:00] So the Lord comes to us almost as we expect him to. Now, this has to be understood well within the well with the contrast that's come next that says in verse 28, you save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
[00:08:25] So this doesn't like it for the prideful person that thinks, oh, yeah, God's going to give me everything I want because look how great I am. No, that's. You're not going to get God that way.
[00:08:35] But if we trust in God to be merciful to us, and to save us and to rescue us, then indeed that's what we find.
[00:08:46] You are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.
[00:08:51] By you I can run against a troop. By my God I can leap over a wall. This is God, his ways perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He's a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God but the Lord and who's a rock except our God? This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
[00:09:13] Remember my Mimi, my grandma gave me a book, Hinds feet in high places. From this verse here.
[00:09:19] That was a little treasure, but this is. Anyway, this is the point is that this. This riddle for us to meditate on is that if. If we are.
[00:09:29] If we are pride, proud in our sins, then we find God to be proud and hard against us.
[00:09:40] But if we're humble and repentant, we find God to be merciful, generous.
[00:09:48] I told you, it's a tr. It's a.
[00:09:50] It's the theological riddle that's right at the heart of the scriptures. It's tough, though, to think about because we want God. You know, we want God to be like a mathematical formula or some sort of precise articulation of an idea.
[00:10:08] But we remember that God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and deals with us personally, uniquely.
[00:10:22] The epistle is from First Corinthians 10, which is a beautiful text because it's talking about all the punishment that the Lord dished out in the Old Testament and says it happened also for us. And it was written down for us.
[00:10:39] It says all these things took place as examples for us, the people who were punished for their sexual immorality or for their grumbling in the wilderness so that we don't desire evil like they did, that we don't become idolaters. If some of them were the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents or grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyers. It is amazing to see idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God and grumbling on the same list.
[00:11:20] Because, you know, we're like, okay, three of those sound really bad to us. But grumbling, we're like, it seems like Grumbling is part of our sanctification. It's part of what it means to be a. You know, a Christian these days as we grumble about things. Huh?
[00:11:36] Beware of the grumble.
[00:11:40] There's a. The Greek word for grumble is.
[00:11:43] Is. Oh, I gotta look it up. How do I pause this thing?
[00:11:49] Ego Eggongusan.
[00:11:53] It sounds like the word. Sounds like what it is.
[00:11:59] No grumbling.
[00:12:02] You can pray.
[00:12:04] No grumbling.
[00:12:06] Now look at what it says here. Verse 11.
[00:12:09] Oh, yeah. Don't grumble as they did who are destroyed by the destroyer.
[00:12:12] Being grumpy and being serious are two different things.
[00:12:16] May the Holy Spirit teach that to me and to you and all of us.
[00:12:20] It's a problem. It's not just in the Lutheran Church, but we're not that good at this. We think, man, if I'm serious about my doctrine, then I'm angry about it.
[00:12:28] That is wrong.
[00:12:29] We can be serious and happy at the same time. We can be responsible and joyful at the same time.
[00:12:37] These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. On whom the end of the ages has come.
[00:12:43] Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. Then no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
[00:12:54] But with the temptation, he will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. That is a beautiful promise.
[00:13:02] Now, it's good for us to remember that temptation in the Bible is more than the allurement to sin. We have kind of a narrow definition of temptation. Temptation is like that enticement to sin.
[00:13:14] It's more than that. Temptation in the Bible means also trouble, difficulty, which I guess brings an enticement to doubt or to look to other places than God for help or whatever.
[00:13:28] But the Lord's always providing a way of escape.
[00:13:36] It might not be the way of escape we want. It might not come as quickly as we wish.
[00:13:41] It might not be an easy way of escape, but it's there. The Lord is not abandoning us over to sin, death and the devil. He's always with us.
[00:13:51] Okay, the gospel. Luke 19. Sorry. Luke 16, 1 9.
[00:13:57] Remember that. Luke 15.
[00:14:00] Boy, oh boy.
[00:14:03] Here's the great help of the Sunday Drive to Church podcast that Luke 15 is before Luke 16. Again.
[00:14:09] So much, Pastor. You're teaching us so much today.
[00:14:12] But we'll remember that Luke 15 has these three lost and found parables. The lost and found sheep, the lost and found coin and the lost and found younger brother and the lost and maybe found older brother.
[00:14:28] And then right on top of that comes this parable which is one of the most difficult.
[00:14:34] Jesus said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.
[00:14:41] So he called to him and said, what is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, you can no longer be manager. And the manager says to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig, I'm ashamed to beg.
[00:14:54] I've decided what to do so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.
[00:15:00] So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? He said, 100 measures of oil. I said, 10, take your bill. Sit down quickly, write a 50.
[00:15:10] He said to another, how much do you owe? And he says, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80.
[00:15:16] The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
[00:15:24] For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.
[00:15:40] Now that's the parable. Now we know. Here's what Jesus is not doing. He's not teaching us how to cheat on our bosses.
[00:15:47] I mean, he's not teaching us how to steal.
[00:15:49] Just like when he says, I'll come like a thief in the night. He's not saying that he's a cat burglar.
[00:15:55] That's not the point of the parable. But the point of the parable is that the sons of this war world know how to use the resources that they have to their own benefit.
[00:16:09] The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. So he is commending us to shrewdness that we ought to do what we can to make friends for ourselves. This is what it says. Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings, so that here this guy uses his position to get advantage for himself.
[00:16:41] We are to use our own position and calling so that the people around us will be in heaven.
[00:16:49] This is basically a stewardship parable. I think that's the cleanest way to understand It. And that the Lord Jesus is saying, look, I've given you so many resources. Money, talent, know how?
[00:17:02] Time, wisdom, connections, a history. I've given you so many resources, you ought to use them so that you will have lots of friends in heaven.
[00:17:21] And we should think about it too. Do you. Do you know how this goes?
[00:17:25] I remember one time there was a couple of guys. I don't remember where we were. They were sitting around, but they were talking about the stock market.
[00:17:33] And I remember I was just listening because I don't know anything. I mean, barely know that there is a stock market. But so I was listening to them talk about it. And I realized in the midst of this conversation, oh, they're meditating on money.
[00:17:53] That what you spend your time thinking about and wondering about, that's meditation.
[00:17:59] And that when you meditate on something, you start to learn more and more about it.
[00:18:08] You all know this experience.
[00:18:10] Sometimes you have a problem that you're trying to solve, and so you have to sit and think about that thing. Let yourself dream about it when you go to sleep at night, daydream about it when you're driving during the day or whatever. And then suddenly some things about that problem start to break loose. So that we should be meditating on how we can use the resources that we have to extend the preaching of the gospel and the kingdom of God.
[00:18:37] That's the idea here.
[00:18:39] Well, it happens by the spirit and. And we pray that God would grant it. The hymn is what Is the World to Me? Which fits right in there. What is the World to Me with all its pomp and treasures and all this stuff? Jesus is my treasure.
[00:18:52] There's this great list of things that Jesus is in this hymn.
[00:18:58] This is just a beautiful poetic reflection of this.
[00:19:02] What is it? The world to me. My Jesus is my treasure, My life, my health, my wealth, my friend, my love, my pleasure, my joy, my crown, my all, My bliss eternally.
[00:19:13] Once more then I declare what is the world of me?
[00:19:17] The world that's beautiful right there.
[00:19:22] The world seeks after wealth and all that mammon offers. Mammon, that's the pagan God of wealth. Yet never is content, Though gold should fill its coffers. That's a fine point. We think that money leads to happiness always. If I had a little more, it's always a little more. It's never what you've got. It's always a little more, more. When Paul says. Remember how Paul says, I've learned the secret of being content in every circumstance. And then Paul doesn't tell us what the secret is. Hey, Paul, you should mention it.
[00:19:56] If you figured it out, why don't you tell us? But here's at least part of the point is that if you can be content in every circumstance, then contentment does not depend on your circumstance.
[00:20:10] So we think that contentment depends on our circumstances. Like, oh, if I was just a little more healthy or a little more wealthy or a little more wise or had a little more hair or a little less gray hair, or if I had a few more friends or a better job, or if I had a spouse or whatever. We think that, ah, the reason why I'm not content is because my circumstances.
[00:20:36] But if Paul says I've learned the secret to be content in every circumstances, then part of the secret is that contentment doesn't depend on the circumstances. You can be. Okay, so for me, let me just preach to myself and also to you.
[00:20:51] You are in difficult circumstances right now.
[00:20:54] I mean, just the Lord puts us in hard spots.
[00:20:57] It might not be a real hard spot. It might be a really hard spot, but all of us are in a hard spot.
[00:21:02] That does not mean that we cannot be content. In fact, we can.
[00:21:08] So that this idea that a little bit more contentment comes a little bit more.
[00:21:13] Look at what we were going to sing. Yet never is content Though gold should fill its coffers I have a higher good content with it I'll be My Jesus is my wealth ha.
[00:21:30] What is the world to me?
[00:21:32] Take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife Let these be gone they yet have nothing won the kingdom ours remaineth we have Jesus and better Jesus has us all right, better stop there Sunday drive to church. See you soon.