Sermon Text: Romans 8:28-39

All things work together

Romans 8:28-39
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ

I have a confession to make to you all. Over the past two weeks, I have been laboring over this first sermon because I wanted to wow this congregation with my ability to deliver to you a great sermon. I wanted you all to think that your new vicar had great ability in delivering a sermon. One problem with this thinking is that it is not my words I must deliver to you, but God’s word. I can’t be worried about what I will say, but rather my duty is to tell you what God wants to say to you. So I went through everything I had written and deleted it from my manuscript. I then stopped and said a prayer.

I prayed that God would whisper the words in my ear. Words he wants you to hear and ponder in your hearts. Words, which will give you reassurance that God is on your side no matter what your circumstances in life are now. He knows that we are not perfect. He knows that we sin much daily; that we have not loved him with our whole heart or for that matter or neighbors as ourselves. Because of this we cannot be on his side. But HE LOVES US DESPITE ALL THIS! He loves us despite how much we hate our job and our boss. He loves us despite our anger or frustration with our brother, sister, spouse, or children.

• The first verse of our text is the same as in the Epistle lesson, verse 28 which says, “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together, for those who are called according to his purpose.” By a show of hands, how many of us have heard this passage at least 10 times in the past? Good. This verse is probably one of the most used verses in the bible in regards to reassurance. However, this verse is also used a little too glibly. Paul is writing this Epistle to the Christians in Rome. It is not a simple reassurance to just anyone. An example of this is:
  

· An elderly couple who had just been conned out of their life savings by a financial advisor who had appeared to them to worthy of trust that. “Everything will work out in the end, Remember Romans 8:28, Chin Up!” To use it so glibly would do a disservice to them and to God.

· Romans 8:28 reveals God’s will in his ultimate plan for all believers that they will be with him in heaven and share in the feast for which we soon be getting a foretaste. However, while we are here we will suffer the repercussions of sin in this world for, which no one is immune.

· Many years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book he titled, “When bad things happen to Good people.” This book was the result of some of his own personal suffering. He and his wife suffered the loss of a child with progeria; a disease, which causes advanced aging in children. Rabbi Kushner concluded bad things happen because the God who created the world, is no longer in control of what happens in it.

· Is this true? Has God lost control over his creation? Romans chapter one where it says in verse 24, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,” He allows man to do as he pleases because He is not a puppeteer who desires to control us, nor does he want to be.

· God created man to have fellowship with Him. Before the fall from grace in the Garden, we were given free will to choose God and have a relationship with him, but when man sinned; he forfeited his free will to choose the things of God. Now through Christ, the Son of God, we are able to conquer the evil, which befalls us in this world.

· Based on what we know from scripture, Rabbi Kushner’s premise is flawed. Holy Scripture proves throughout that bad things do not happen to good people. Based on the scriptural definition of GOOD, we fall short, just as Paul writes in the third chapter of Romans verse 23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If all human beings have sinned, how can they be good? I would like to submit the correct title of Rabbi Kusher’s book should be, “When good things happen to bad people.”

· Good things happen to bad people because of God’s love for his ultimate creation, you and me. In verse 32 of Romans 8, Paul repeats the Gospel message heard in John 3:16, which says, “God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he then not give to us all that he has given to his Son? Through Christ’s sacrifice, we gain salvation by grace through faith.

· In our Old Testament lesson, God called the Israelites to be a people “Holy “unto the Lord their God. At that time, they were His chosen people. They were because their forefather Abraham believed and his belief was credited as righteousness. God promised Abraham that the messiah would come through his descendants. When Jesus began his ministry, he chose his disciples they did not choose him and it is they who became the elect of God.

· To seal the deal, he gave himself over to the enemy, which includes all those born into this world through Adam. The Pharisees, Sadducees, High Priests, Roman Soldiers, Pontius Pilate and even you and me. We crucified him, but as Romans 5:8 says. While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. On the third day he rose again from the dead. So those that love him are the chosen and called of God. They are the one predestined beforehand to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, the firstborn among many brothers.

· Jesus gave us justification through his death and in his resurrection we were given the promise of his glory on the last day.

· If God is for us, who can be against us? We have already said that we cannot be on God’s side because of our sinful nature. But because of Jesus, God is on our Side. As Paul wrote in verse 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? No! In all these things we are MORE than conquerors through him who loved us. We win! Break out the ticker tape because we are going to have a humdinger of a parade in heaven on the last day.

· Finally Paul writes, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is our reassurance policy. This policy will give a complete 100% payout on the day of Judgment. Hallelujah Amen!

I was installed as Vicar at Faith Lutheran Church in Tullahoma, TN on July 13, 2008. I have performed one service as the lector and this Sunday will be handling the whole service as my Pastor will be attending his Son's wedding down in Georgia. I also have the opportunity to be an observer for my first funeral.

I have been meeting people in the church for the past week and to know my duties within the scope of my vocation. This is not a job. A job is something one goes to in the morning and comes home from in the evening.

My sermon text for this Sunday is Romans 8:28-39. I will publish my sermon on Sunday afternoon possibly with the sound.

Well my family and I survived the long drive from Minnesota back to Tennessee. A good vaction is now over and work must begin. This Sunday I will be installed as Vicar of Faith Lutheran Church in Tullahoma, TN.

I am looking forward to this adventure in my life and know that it is a journey led by God. There will be many duties to perform including dubbing "Worship fo Shut-ins" for the local nursing home. Worship for Shut-ins began as a ministry in Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne. It is it's own ministry and no longer tied to Holy Cross, but they are a viable and valuable tool of ministry to those who are unable to get to church on a regular basis because of health problems.

I will check in here about once a week, maybe more to contemplate where this ministry is taking me.

I am on vacation with my family. We are in Minnesota two more days and then we head back to Tennessee where I will be installed as the vicar at Faith Lutheran Church on July 13.

I just want to say how good it has been to hear Issues Etc. again. I have downloaded all the programs for the week on iTunes and have listened to about half of them. Todd and Jeff haven't lost a beat since being fired on March 18 by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

I will be writing throughout the year on things I am learning or have learned while being vicar. I have taken the comment feature off as I am not looking to have anyone agree, disagree or pat me on the back. My posts will not include any rantings about the Synod or District or orthodoxy/heterodoxy. I also will not be posting anything about my family. This is purely an exercise in writing.

Well we are headed south to Tullahoma, TN to serve the congregation of Faith Lutheran Church. We begin on July 15, 2008

Vicarage

In just 5 days I will learn of my destination for the next year. I have almost finished 2 years at Concordia Theological Seminary and now my first opportunity to see the life of a Pastor up close. I don't know where God will send my family and me, but I trust that it will be a year I will never forget.

Here is the Sermon I preached this morning in my fieldwork church, St. Paul's Lutheran, Gar Creek, IN

Sermon Text: Luke 4:1-13

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Temptation! It is something you deal with on a daily basis. Our very faculties of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are subject to temptations. The Greek definition of temptation is: that which puts us to the proof - whether by good or malicious design. In other words, temptation is designed to bring out what is really in our hearts.

Most often temptation is used to get you to do the wrong thing rather than the right thing. Temptations are also meant to attack our emotional state of mind. What is it that tempts you?

Are you tempted by new gadgets? new tools? new computers or video games? How about the internet, are there websites that you go to and shouldn’t? Maybe you are tempted by food? Is Cheesecake too much temptation? For me it is a thick juicy medium- rare rib-eye steak. If I am in back home, it is a chicken wing place that I can not pass up if I happen to be in that particular neighborhood. Maybe you are a vegan or vegetarian and Eggplant parmegian is your weakness. When it comes to temptation we are all weak and we all fail to resist those temptations that take us down that dark road to sin.

Weakness! That is what Satan wants to find when he tempts you. That’s what he was trying to find out with Jesus in the desert. Satan has been watching Jesus very carefully ever since he was born. He had tried on a few occasions to have him killed, but to no avail. Now he sees him in the desert and sees that he hasn’t eaten a thing for the past 40 days. He has got to be hungry! Have you ever fasted? If so, how long did you fast, a day, a week, a couple of hours? In truth we all fast during the time that we sleep and therefore when we wake up the next morning we call our first meal of the day “Breakfast” because we are breaking the fast we have been on all night.

Now he also knows that before Jesus came to the desert He had been at the Jordan River where He was baptized and Satan, like all the others had heard the heavens open and God’s voice say to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Satan was noweager to work his wiles on Jesus. “Son of God? Yeah right. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Perhaps you have had a parent or mentor, someone you looked up to tell you they were proud of you? I can remember my father, who passed away 18 years ago last Sunday, telling me every now and again how proud he was of the person I had become. My mother continually tells me that he would be proud of me. Today, I tell my children that I love them and that I am proud of them despite my continuing failures as a parent. Jesus has heard his very own Father tell him he is pleased with him. It is at this time that the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove.

Satan waits for just the right time. He has heard God tell him that he is pleased with his son and he probably figures that if Jesus is God’s Son he has the ability to fast a lot longer than the average human. At the forty day mark he says to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, say to this stone that it becomes bread.” Now put yourself in Jesus place for one moment. If you are hungry after fasting for forty days and you possess the power of God in you, wouldn’t this be tempting to you? Jesus’ human nature was very hungry and weak. How easy would it have been for Him to do what Satan was asking?

Most of you, when you get hungry we begin immediately to forage for food. In this age of convenience you might go to your kitchen and prepare a snack, or pick up the phone and get a pizza delivered. If you had this power and were as hungry as Jesus, how quickly might you be tempted to change a stone into a loaf of bread?[SLS1]

Satan’s goal is to get Jesus to use his Godly power to end his fast. Jesus mission was, is and always will be pure obedience to God and his will. He trusts his father to sustain him in all things. Do you trust God for your sustenance in ALL things or just those moments when you need him most? When you pray the Lords prayer do you mean it when you speak the petition on daily bread?

Jesus is being tempted to use his powers for his own benefit rather than trusting in his Father’s will and not using them at this time. If you look back to Genesis you would see that this is similar to the temptation Eve faced. God had created the World with them in mind. Adam and Eve had so much including free will, but still God wanted them to rely on him for everything and he needed to know if they would do so. He allowed their faith to be tested. The only way that it can be tested is to allow them to exercise the gift of free will.

The serpent had one goal in mind to take aim with temptation at God’s word. He deceived Eve to take something she already possessed in her fellowship with God and take as her own without the need for a relationship with God. God’s very nature possesses the knowledge of good and evil, but the serpent being the craftiest of beasts, found a way to get between Eve and God’s word. Because of this deception, Eve thought that God wanted to withhold this “Knowledge” from her rather than share it with her in a pure and perfect relationship.

Isn’t this where you fall most often? Your sinful nature is one that is self-centered and when Satan tempts you he will twist ever so slightly, God’s word, to persuade you into believing that God is a spoil sport who wants to deny you those things which you really desire. Like moving in with the person you intend you marry before the wedding with the excuse that you need to find out if you can live with each other first. Or maybe you are withholding money from the church because you want to get that new car just a little quicker than you had planned. Or perhaps you feel wronged by someone so you feel entitled to hold a grudge rather than forgive them.

The temptation he put before Jesus was designed to challenge Jesus to do the easy thing and just create something on the spot to satisfy his hunger. It was a challenge to Jesus identity within the triune God and most of all tempted his human will to supersede God’s will.

Jesus responds to Satan’s temptation with God’s pure and perfect word from Deuteronomy 8:3 “Man does not live on Bread alone, but by ever word that comes from the mouth of God.” God’s Word is the Bread from Heaven. Just as bread gives sustenance to your physical life, so God’s Word is life-giving. When you hear pastor invoke the words of institution before Holy Communion, he is attaching Christ’s mandate to the elements of bread and wine and because of this invocation, the mystery of Christ’s real presence is there as you receive his body and blood. Jesus’ response to the temptation is a firm NO!

Remember two weeks ago, David, in his sermon, mentioned how Moses was on the Mountaintop and God was showing him the glory of the Promised Land, but that he would not enter because of his sin at Meribah where he struck the stone with his staff in his anger and water came forth from it. Satan has also taken Jesus up a Mountain just like Moses but instead of showing Jesus the Promised Land. Our text says that He is shown the glories of the world in an instant. At this point Satan tells the Grand-daddy of all lies. “To you I will give this authority and their glory, because to me it has been delivered and to anyone I please I give it. If you, then, worship before me, it will all be yours.” What Satan wants is Jesus lying prostrate before him paying homage to him and all the evil therein.

Today we might say to Satan, “Who died and made you king dawg?” The only world you are king of, is the fallen world. Who created the world? Was it not Almighty God? Where does it say that the devil has any authority or ownership of anything but fallen creation? Satan as the serpent receives his glory only in deceiving man with his lies. He really has no true authority and that was evident when God cursed the serpent.

God said to the serpent in Genesis 3 that he would put enmity between his seed and the woman’s seed. You will strike his heel and he will crush your head. Satan was defeated already because if he had been given the authority over all the things he told Jesus he had, God would not have been able to curse him in that way. The devil is a created being and he has no power over God, but he wants to make you think he does.

Jesus answers Satan’s lie with scripture again, “The Lord your God you will worship and him alone will you serve.” This is the first commandment: You shall have no other Gods before me.” In the Divine Service we are receiving God’s word and sacrament. You confess that you are a sinner and receive absolution from God through the Pastor. Your worship is not like the pagans who put all their efforts into sacrificing themselves to a God they can’t appease. God tells us that he desires mercy not sacrifice. God wants your hearts to be for him, but he knows that you can not do this on our own behalf.

Jesus has successfully rebuffed Satan with scripture on two temptations. The first one attacked his identity and his power, the second, tried to lure him to a shallow victory, one without suffering but Jesus doesn’t succumb to it because he knows that God’s will for him is to suffer first before receiving his glory. Anything short of that is not part of God’s plan.

As we look at the final temptation. Satan takes Jesus up to the highest pinnacle of the Temple and again tempts him with a question to his identity. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here: for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, in order to guard you, and on their hands they will lift you up, lest you hit your foot against a stone.” The quote Satan seemingly uses is from Psalm 91:11-12 which reads:

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Either Satan doesn’t know scripture as well, or he is purposely leaving out the words “in all your ways”. You will see that it is the latter not the former. If you remember when the serpent was tempting Eve, he deliberately asked her: “Did God really say that you should not eat from any of the trees in the Garden?” Eve’s response was, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" She misquotes God’s command to Adam and in doing so give Satan a wonderful window of opportunity.

Satan knew God’s word and he used her misunderstanding of God’s command to deceive her into believing God was not the benevolent creator he was cracked up to be. Satan was up to his old tricks when he took Jesus to that pinnacle. But Jesus, knowing God’s will for him doesn’t give in to this temptation either. His answer to Satan is once again from scripture only Jesus gives him God’s full word in his answer—“You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Three times Jesus faced temptations that were given to him to make him fail in his mission. Three times Jesus used the Word of God to show Satan that he would not succumb. Our text says in verse 13 “And when every temptation was brought to an end, the devil departed from him until an opportune time.” And in weeks to come we will see just when that opportune time is, but truthfully Satan dogs Jesus throughout his ministry just as he does with God’s children in theirs.

[SLS3] Jesus had faced the tempter in our place and was victorious! His victory was completed on the cross when he took your place and was judged for your sins. In your confession of sins you lay your sins at the feet of Jesus cross telling him that you are not worthy that he should die for you. We are poor sinful beings and we deserve the kind of death he went through. Jesus overcame temptation for us in the desert and he overcame it on the cross. And by his sacrifice he overcame death, hell and the grave when he rose again on the third day. He did it for you, He did it for me. His victory is our victory!

Our hymn of the day, written by Martin Luther is one of his most famous. “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” In the third verse we sing of Christ’s victory over Satan.

Though devils all the world should fill,

All eager to devour us,

we tremble not, we fear no ill;

They shall not over pow’r us.

This world’s prince may still

Scowl fierce as he will,

He can harm us none.

He’s judged the deed is done;

One little word can fell him.

Jesus is the Word that fell the devil. His Word and His Sacrament give us the power to defeat Satan. The temptation of our Lord is not meant to be a Moral story where Jesus is the example. It is not about teaching your children to find the right bible verses when they feel tempted. It is about Jesus taking your place and facing your temptations for you and because he was led by the Spirit into that desert, the same Holy Spirit he received in his baptism, you too receive power from the Holy Spirit given to you in your baptism to face temptations and resist them.

In Baptism you became a child of God and he says to you “You are now my child through faith in my Son in whom I am well pleased.” You now have received the same affirmation from the Father that Jesus received when he was baptized. You have the power to resist temptation because you have Christ’s Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul assures us in 1 Corinthians: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

He knows your limitations he knows your abilities and he is faithful to help you through it when you call upon him.

Amen.

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